Friday, May 16, 2014

CLEVELAND – PTC Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: PTCT) today announced that the results of a Phase 3 study of ataluren in patients with nonsense mutation cystic fibrosis (nmCF) were published in Lancet Respiratory Medicine. The results demonstrated positive trends in both the primary endpoint, lung function as measured by relative change in % predicted FEV1 (forced expiratory volume in one second) and in the secondary outcome measure, rate of pulmonary exacerbations. The collective data from this trial, including retrospective and subgroup analyses support the conclusion that ataluren was active and showed clinically meaningful improvements over placebo in these trials.

“The overall data from this trial are promising. Patients on ataluren experienced fewer pulmonary exacerbations and showed a stabilization in their FEV1 results, particularly in the subgroup of patients that did not use chronic inhaled aminoglycosides. Such stabilization of disease is an important clinical endpoint, particularly for this patient population that has one of the most severe forms of CF. CF patients with nonsense mutations do not produce any functional CFTR protein and therefore generally have a more severe form of cystic fibrosis. Current treatments for nonsense mutation cystic fibrosis focus on alleviating symptoms and reducing infections, whereas ataluren targets the underlying cause of disease,” stated Michael Konstan, M.D., lead study investigator and Chairman of Pediatrics at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio.

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University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio, serves the needs of patients through an integrated network of 18 hospitals, more than 40 outpatient health centers and 200 physician offices throughout northern Ohio. The health system’s flagship academic medical center, University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, focuses on biomedical research through Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals – part of The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development. UH Cleveland Medical Center is an affiliate of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

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